If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

KDE 4.10 KWin To Properly Support AMD Catalyst

Phoronix: KDE 4.10 KWin To Properly Support AMD Catalyst

KWin, KDE's compositing window manager, will better play with the AMD Catalyst binary blob in the KDE 4.10 release by enabling direct rendering and the OpenGL 2.x back-end for those using the latest Catalyst driver...

times ago they talked about openGL 3/4 support, where is it now? isn't openGL 2 old too?

opengl is not directx meaning opengl 4 is not better or faster or cooler or pretiest than opengl 2, opengl 4 only provide extensions or improvements to support new techniques present in more recent hardware like tessalation for example.

another thing is that opengl allows you to mix revisions[cuz mostly they are extensions] so the opengl 2 render engine can support FBO/VBO in dx9/10 class hardware for example and pbuffers for older hardware[not sure if dx8 class hardware can fully support FBO] and so on [ofc some features may require specific hardware or the use of especific extension from opengl X.x to work], in this case the important thing is support for opengl2 that allow you to use shaders, so later in time you can detect in runtime the GPU and add more capabilities present in that hardware or more complex/efficient shaders[<-- this is very simplified],etc.

AMD has already been supporting direct rendering, but KWin couldn't use it for some reason.

TextureFromPixamp was buggy under direct rendering, which is why none of the desktop compositers worked with it.

Catalyst 12.6 was the release which fixed it.

Compiz - uses indirect rendering only
Gnome Shell - uses direct rendering only, which is why it was broken when you ran with fglrx
KWin - made it optional and defaulted fglrx to indirect rendering since it was broken otherwise